Hulk Annual #1
Vista: The Beginning
With her neurological disorder getting worse, Patricia Wolman has decided to cease working. She explains to her mother about how she was working for SHIELD and Bruce Banner, how Banner turned into Doc Green and moved them to the Beehive. She has to end her call when it is announced that her flight to Vancouver is about to depart. As she runs off, a man who was impatiently waiting to use the payphone picks up the receiver and hears nothing but a recording informing her that the number dialed had been disconnected.
Weeks later, at the Beehive, Doctor Bryson contacts Doc Green to tell him about wildly growing vegetation that is spreading rapidly across the city of Vancouver. The Doc is well aware of the situation, as his gamma detector was able to pick up the growth hours earlier. Bryson explains that attempts to quarantine the entire city is failing and that the plants have started assimilating other living beings as well as inanimate objects. Doc Green begins building a device to try and stop the metamorphosis but the device shorts out. He then angrily wonders where Patricia is. By this point, Bryson is horrified because the air around him is becoming electrified as the plant life attempts to speak. Suddenly, the plant shrieks and begins assimilating everything around it, including Bryson and other people caught in the middle of the chaos. Turned into plant life, all of the victims start screaming "Vista". Some people manage to get onto a boat and sail out to sea, sparing themselves from being transformed into plant-like creatures. Looking back, they see that the plant has assimilated the entire city of Vancouver.
Soon, Doc Green arrives in the region and takes a sample from the plant and has one of his devices examine its genomes. The plant responds by striking Doc Green with a massive vine sending him flying across the city. Angered, Doc Green fights back against the plant and recovers his genome scanner. The device tells him that the massive plant contains Hulk DNA, which comes as a surprise to Doc Green. He is suddenly attacked by a number of animals that are possessed by the plant. As Doc Green battles the creatures he can't help but notice that these creatures are similar to the creatures found on Derenik Zadian's island. Outnumbered, Doc Green leaps onto the Lion's Gate Bridge. Looking down into English Bay, he sees that the plant life is utilizing the water to grow the food it needs for energy. To cut off this supply, the Doc leaps over to a nearby mountain top that has not been infested by the plants and rips the tip off and tosses at the food supply in English Bay. The plant responds by using its tendrils to toss chunks of rock back at Doc Green. Suddenly, humanoid beings that have been assimilated into the plant lifeform begin approaching, calling the Doc by the name of Bruce Banner. Wondering how this creature could know who he is, Doc Green is shocked when he looks down the mountain and sees that the plants on the ground have organized themselves into the likeness of Patricia Wolman. When he calls out Patty's name, the plant creatures tell him that Patty no longer exists and that they are now known as Vista.
Meanwhile, at the Burnaby Assisted Living Center, Patricia's father is being questioned by a SHIELD agent that has tracked her movements to Vancouver. The agent explains how Patty went back to her lab in the city and some kind of accident happened that caused the rise of Vista. This upsets Mr. Wolman, and he tells the agent about her life. Patricia Wolman had a deep interest in biology. When she was younger she joined various environmental groups and went on marches with her mother. It was through this activism that she got a strong desire to save the planet and turned to study science, she was encouraged in this pursuit by her mother. She graduated high school with high honors and was awarded a grant to further her education in what she called "intelligent biomass". Unfortunately, Patty lost the rock in her life when her mother later died of throat cancer. Patricia took the death hard and began focusing primarily on her work. Her father didn't bounce back from the death of his wife either. A lifelong pipe smoker, he blamed himself for the death of his wife. He spiraled into depression and needed 24-hour care. Patty was absent during these days because she was attempting to sell her plans for Vegetal Intelligence Sentient Transmission Array (or VISTA for short) to Roxxon Industries.
Things went well until Roxxon spent billions on an intelligent plant life form that can only answer simple questions and suffers from power surges. Patricia's funding was cut and she struggled to find new partners to fund her ventures. She and her assistant Ahmed learned of Zaidan's, finally giving her hope that she can finally create truly green technology. The only likely employer to support her dream was SHIELD, although she was apprehensive about working for the spy agency. However, this all changed when she was diagnosed with an incurable neurological disorder. That motivated her to work for SHIELD and Bruce Banner. With her life coming to an end, she decided to take the job in the hopes of Banner killing her as the Hulk so her father could collect the insurance. This was her plan until she learned that Banner was going to investigate the island owned by Derenik Zadian. She decided that the key to creating VISTA would be incorporating Zadian's technology with hers. Planting a bug on Banner before he went out to explore the island, she collected the specimens that she needed to merge the two technologies. Working in secret, she learned was shocked to see the plants growing wildly. Scanning them she found Hulk DNA within it, and questions why. She found her answer when she later asked Banner about what he and Tony Stark ate to survive on the island. When Banner explains that he ate fruit on the island. Patricia correctly deduced that since it was fruit engineered by Zadian, it extracted Hulk DNA and added it to its genetic matrix when Banner ate and eliminated the fruit. Once she perfected the technology, Patricia then took the sample to her lab in Vancouver and exposed herself to VISTA in the hopes that it would be seen as an accident so her father could get the insurance. However, she did not foresee that VISTA would grow out of control.
Back in Vancouver, Doc Green learns that Patty has become one with Vista. She has become one with everything she has absorbed and is reveling in this power. The only threat to her existence is the human race and she is determined to destroy it in order to unify the entire planet. Green questions why and Vista explains that humanity is responsible for the damage being done to the environment. Doc Green points out that sacrificing their humanity is not worth trying to fix the planet. She questions why he would defend humanity, given how the human race always hounded and hunted Doc Green when he was the Hulk. He points out that he doesn't hate humanity due to its moments of creativity and altruism. Pointing out that cherishing human life is what led to the birth of the Hulk. When Vista points out that Doc Green hates Bruce Banner, Green explains that he hates Banner not because he is human, but because he is weak. When Vista attempts to swarm him, he leaps up into the air to a lightning strike can free him. This buys his synthesizer device time to develop a means to stop the plant growth. Doc Green then allows Vista to envelop him so he can release the serum he created. This causes Vista to receive, freeing everything it assimilated in the city and restoring everything back to relative normalcy. With the danger over, Doc Green stays behind to help repair the city.
However, the threat of Vista is far from over as, unknown to Doc Green, the plant life managed to get onto the boat that fled Vancouver earlier and assimilated everyone on board. Arriving on an island in the South Pacific, the creature swarms a group of fishermen and takes over the entire island, assimilating all life on it.
Recurring Characters
Doc Green, Melinda Leucenstern, Daman Veteri, Randall Jessup, VISTA, Iron Man
Continuity Notes
Patricia joined Bruce Banner's team in Indestructible Hulk #3. It was revealed that she was dying of a neurological disease in Indestructible Hulk #8. Their trip to Derenik Zadian's island happened in Indestructible Hulk Annual #1.
Originally it was stated that Patricia suffered from Cruetzfeldt-Jako Disease in Indestructible Hulk #8. This story states that it is a variant of CJD. In either case, the specific illness should be considered a topical reference relevant to the time of publication per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
Doc Green recalls a number of events from his past as the Hulk.
Betty getting shot at by a man in a suit is from Red She-Hulk #62.
The Hulk being held prisoner by General Ryker is from Incredible Hulk Vol 2 #20.
The Hulk being restrained in specially made coils is from Tales to Astonish #62.
Rick Jones carrying the Hulk away from an explosion is from Incredible Hulk #2.
The Hulks first meeting with the Avengers is from Avengers #1.
